Paul Richard Thomas SSC (born 1975) is a British

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

bishop who has served as Bishop of Oswestry, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Lichfield, and the provincial episcopal visitor for the western half of the Province of Canterbury (a position formerly held by the

Bishop of Ebbsfleet The Bishop of Ebbsfleet is a suffragan bishop who fulfils the role of a provincial episcopal visitor in the Church of England. From its creation in 1994 to 2022, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet served traditionalist Anglo-Catholic parishes that reject t ...

) since February 2023. From 2011, he was vicar of St James's Church, Paddington.

Early life and education

Thomas was born in 1975 and raised in Carmarthenshire,

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. He studied medieval English at

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) degree in 1996. He continued his studies and graduated with a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1998 or 1999. He trained for ordained ministry at Ripon College Cuddesdon, a theological college near Oxford. He graduated with a further BA in 2001 and an MA in 2006. In 1992 while at high school, he was a contestant on the TV quiz show '' Blockbusters''.

Ordained ministry

Thomas was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

as a deacon in 2002 and as a priest in 2003. From 2002 to 2006, he served his curacy in the parish of St Mary with Christ Church, Wanstead in the Diocese of Chelmsford. He was an assistant priest at St Marylebone Parish Church from 2006, and then additionally a chaplain at St Marylebone School and chaplain to the Royal Academy of Music from 2008. In 2011, Thomas was appointed vicar of St James's Church, Paddington. Having stepped down as school chaplain when he left Marylebone, he continued as chaplain to the Royal Academy of Music until 2012. He was additionally area dean of Westminster Paddington from 2016 to 2021 and acting Archdeacon of Charing Cross from 2017 to 2019. He was also a school chaplain at Wellington College, Berkshire, from 2018 to 2019.

Episcopal ministry

On 2 December 2022, it was announced that Thomas would be the next Bishop of Oswestry, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Lichfield. The Bishop of Oswestry is also the provincial episcopal visitor for traditionalist Anglo-Catholic parishes (i.e. those who reject the ordination of women as priests and bishops) in the thirteen dioceses of the western half of the Province of Canterbury. This role had formerly been undertaken by the

, and as such Thomas is the first PEV Bishop of Oswestry. He was consecrated a bishop at Candlemas, 2 February 2023, by Martin Warner, Bishop of Chichester, at Canterbury Cathedral. Thomas became chairman of Forward in Faith on Saint Andrew's Day, 30 November 2023. On 31 March 2025, Thomas was made an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Birmingham.https://scontent-lhr6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/487489669_638932715778658_1006192657225071816_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpegr_tt6&_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=uH3d6ZcgKQgQ7kNvgHIDbfj&_nc_oc=AdkTsxFDMDuxyF47VlXMf4-wT6d0mj_3Y9KxQFnp17qStIm_6V3i2RhcDVjSr9ru6zg&_nc_zt=23&se=-1&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr6-1.xx&_nc_gid=1ib48aJJ0o8a6HjmkoFcew&oh=00_AYGpteouM_2iSN7pHW-EgWM9O2C0HhW6SUjP6F_RSztsbg&oe=67F087F4

Selected works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Paul Living people Anglo-Catholic bishops 21st-century Anglican priests Bishops of Oswestry Welsh Christian clergy Alumni of Cardiff University Alumni of Ripon College Cuddesdon University and college chaplains in the United Kingdom Anglican chaplains British chaplains 1975 births